1. Technical Field
The present invention is directed to teleconferences. More specifically, the present invention is directed to an apparatus, system and method of providing feedback to an e-meeting presenter.
2. Description of Related Art
Due to recent trends toward telecommuting, mobile offices, and the globalization of businesses, more and more employees are being geographically separated from each other. As a result, more and more teleconferences are occurring at the work place.
A teleconference, as is well known, involves non-face-to-face interactions among participants. Particularly, a teleconference is a conference in which participants communicate with each other by means of telecommunication devices such as telephones or computer systems. Collaboration software, such as IBM Lotus Web conferencing, enables the participants to view and share applications, annotate documents, chat with other participants, or conduct an interactive white board session using their computer systems.
Face-to-face communications provide a variety of visual cues that ordinarily help in ascertaining whether a conversation is being understood or even being heard. For example, non-verbal behaviors such as visual attention and head nods during a conversation are indicative of understanding. Certain postures, facial expressions and eye gazes may provide social cues as to a person's emotional state, etc. Non-face-to-face communications are devoid of such cues.
As with any conversation or in any meeting, sometimes a participant might be stimulated by what is being communicated and sometimes the participant might be totally disinterested. Since in teleconferences in which Web conferencing equipment is used voice and images may be transmitted digitally, it would be advantageous to provide to a presenter feedback regarding participants' interest in a teleconference presentation.